That’s an excellent point, and it is probably a huge reason why the number of accidents has dramatically decreased since that time.
As a youngster and then teenager on the farm in the 60s, I cannot recall any of our PTO-driven implements having guards. I now consider myself lucky not to have had an accident, because there were times that I was quite cavalier about operating farm equipment.
Some people remove them, because they genuinely make it more difficult to attach equipment. You can’t see what you’re doing to line things up properly with the shield on, you have to work by feel; and a more awkward hand and arm position is required.
Plus which, it’s not only where the shields are that’s dangerous. Depending on the equipment, there are various parts that can’t be shielded if the equipment’s to do its job.
Plus which, it’s possible for a shield to stick, and start spinning with the shaft instead of staying stationary while the shaft spins inside it.
Turn the tractor (or other motive power) off if you’re coming anywhere near the thing. (And leave the shields in place, just in case.)
And those other parts are the parts where a jam is likely to happen.
I need to acknowledge that this was very funny.
Some people take more than once to learn something.
This whole discussion is horrifying, and I’ve never been so happy to be a city kid.
I think I’ll stay far away from where my food comes from… but I’ll be shuddering the next time I drive past wheat or corn fields.
Agreed. Though I come from a rural area, I never had to do any farming.
My Mom’s fourth husband got his wedding ring caught in a drill press and lost part of a finger. He did, in fact, put it on ice and drive himself to the hospital. I guess this is a thing that happens, although they were unable to save the finger.
Unsurprising. Drill presses make for really messy wounds.
I don’t do well at all in cities. And I love farming; even if I don’t love hooking up PTO equipment. (which I most definitely do with the tractor turned off; a process which then becomes safer than crossing a lot of city streets.)
People vary. Which is a very good thing; otherwise we’d all be trying to live in the same spot and with the same beleaguered person.
FWIW, OSHA lists ‘Miscellaneous Agricultural Workers’ as the tenth-most dangerous occupation in the US. ‘Logging workers’ is #1, followed by ‘Roofers’.
Update on the Fayette County (KY) school superintendent circus.
Demetrus Liggins, the embattled superintendent now on leave after resigning (or not resigning) and who was allegedly caught on video slipping a threatening e-mail under the office door of one of his critics, is upping the ante, or at least his attorney, Amos Jones is.
History of this increasingly tense squabble:
https://www.kentucky.com/news/local/education/article316174497.html
Isn’t this blackmail?
If the district doesn’t retract this claim of blackmail, Dr. Liggins will release photos taken at the Sunset Motel on the evening of March 14, 2026.
Passing a threatening “email” under a door – that used to be called sneaker-net.
If there are any laws broken that would be revealed by the opening up and naming of names, then the public prosecutor in that jurisdiction should be convening a grand jury now to establish what the criminal charges should be, regardless of what “the district” does.
If it is all just personal peccadilloes and scandal, then yes, it does sound like blackmail or extortion or something along those lines.
Based on the lone posted TripAdvisor review, the Sunset Motel sounds like the place to stay in Lexington.
Of course, by rescinding-or-maybe-not his own resignation, he’s effectively blackmailing himself, because that pretty much forces the district to air all of the dirty laundry about why they’re firing him for cause. Which, it looks pretty certain, there’s going to be a lot of.
State trooper in Seattle area pulls over a woman who was driving her Tesla down the freeway on autopilot at 78 MPH while asleep.
Wasn’t that in the pilot episode of Knight Rider?
The unaired first pilot was Nighty-Knight Rider.
That version of K.I.T.T. was short for “Killed In Tumbling Tesla”, as a napping Michael goes over a steep embankment.